Former CIA Director Tenet agrees to book deal with Crown Publishing

[seemslikeadream]

HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
Monday, December 6, 2004
(12-06) 19:25 PST NEW YORK (AP) --

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Financial terms were not disclosed Monday, but a rival publisher, who asked not to be identified, said bidding "easily" topped $4 million.

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Books by former CIA officials have to be cleared by the agency, but Tenet's former spokesman at the CIA, Bill Harlow, said he was "confident that the director will be able to be candid, without running into any difficulties with the clearance process."

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Barnett said the book, currently untitled and to be co-authored by Harlow, will likely come out at the end of 2005 or early in 2006.

Although works by CIA directors do not have a history of commercial success, an insider work that criticized the agency was a best seller last summer. "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror" was written under the penname "Anonymous" by senior CIA officer Mike Scheuer. He resigned last month, citing a desire to speak more freely about problems in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and the debate over intelligence reform.

Tenet left the CIA in July after seven years as director. He was criticized for intelligence failures on his watch, including the terrorist attacks and the never-proven prewar allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Nonetheless, Tenet next week will receive the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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For instance, at an October speech at Georgia's Mercer University, Tenet said information does exist indicating that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Tenet also argued that the lack of "direct evidence of stockpiles" in Iraq does not mean that Saddam could not manufacture and deliver biological and chemical weapons, according to a report in The Macon Telegraph.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/12/06/national2149EST0785.DTL